“One thing they didn’t tell me was that I was in the middle of a Nirvana reunion!”
When you are Paul McCartney, it must be difficult to be surprised by anything – but wait until you read some of this terrific interview he just did with Q magazine!
The latest Q magazine has a great conversation with McCartney, on a whole range of topics….
Macca Talks Kanye!
For example, here is what he said about Kanye West:
“I got a call, somebody said, ‘Kanye would like to work with you.’ So we just knocked around for a few days…”
He then goes on to explain how surprised he was to find out that a lot of his work was used in other songs – that he didn’t even know about!
One of the best anecdotes involves his work with the surviving Beatles.
The Final Beatles Recording!
Paul discussed working with George and Ringo one last time:
“It was really brilliant cos you could be fooled once or twice into thinking that John was in the vocal booth.”
Let’s look at this great interview from Paul!
Looking Good At 30!
The terrific British music magazine “Q” just celebrated its 30th anniversary – oh, and guess who was on the very first cover!
Paul McCartney sat down with the magazine to look at the last thirty years, and he told some great stories, such as how he ended up working with Nirvana!
The Nirvana Reunion!
Paul tells Q how the Nirvana song came about, beginning with Dave Growl asking if he wanted to come over and jam. After playing for a bit, he explains how he found out it was a Nirvana reunion:
“…then this very tall guy who I didn’t know who was introduced as Krist and this other guy introduced as Pat, they joined in. The guys were laughing, saying ‘we haven’t played like this in 20 years.’ I said, ‘oh, you’ve played together before, have you?’ They go, ‘Yeah, we’re Nirvana.’ I had no idea. It was funny, I would’ve been intimidated if I’d realized I was being the vocalist in Nirvana!”
Here is an amazing live performance from Seattle in 2013, when Nirvana joins Paul onstage in their hometown for a rocking rendition of “Cut Me Some Slack”!
Of course, I’ve written about McCartney’s Seattle performances before – in 1976, when Wings landed at The Kingdome! See some great live performances here:
Paul also tells a poignant story about recording with The Beatles one last time:
The Beatles’ Last Recording!
When the surviving band members were finalizing the terrific Anthology project, they gathered with Producer Jeff Lynne of ELO to record “Free As A Bird”.
“It was very smooth really. I think once we’d decided that we would do it, there was no point in having any tensions.”
He also discusses how the three of them felt John’s presence in the studio…
“It was really brilliant cos you could be fooled once or twice into thinking that John was in the vocal booth.”
Here is the music video for “Free As A Bird”:
Finally, I posted a piece speculating on whether the third Fireman album was actually “McCartney III” –
Well, here is what Paul had to say about that album, when he got this idea from Youth, who pointed out that the first two Fireman albums were simply instrumentals:
“He says to me, ‘how about a vocal?’ I said, ‘well, there’s no song.’ So I had to say to the engineers, ‘OK everyone…this could be the end of my career cos I’ve no ideas what noises I’m gonna make now…I’m gonna shout words.’ It was like being on a psychiatrist’s couch, you were just shouting things. It was a very liberating way to work.”
While “Electric Arguments” feels like a McCartney solo album, it is clearly in the spirit of The Fireman. Read more about this McCartney gem here:
Bravo to Q magazine for such an insightful interview – and there is so much more to it, so buy the magazine and check it out. Let me know what you think!
Excellent post! I LOVE everyone listed. A big Foo Fighters fan, Beatles fan, Nirvana–very interesting. I would tell Paul’s hairdresser to lighten up on the dark brown color. Nothing wrong with total gray or salt and pepper….
First, thank you for the comment! I agree that he has gone a bit TOO far on the hair color…he did a sandy salt’n’pepper for a bit…that said, I really enjoyed reading his anecdotes about working with Nirvana – what a great song! He loves to collaborate!
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Excellent post! I LOVE everyone listed. A big Foo Fighters fan, Beatles fan, Nirvana–very interesting. I would tell Paul’s hairdresser to lighten up on the dark brown color. Nothing wrong with total gray or salt and pepper….
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First, thank you for the comment! I agree that he has gone a bit TOO far on the hair color…he did a sandy salt’n’pepper for a bit…that said, I really enjoyed reading his anecdotes about working with Nirvana – what a great song! He loves to collaborate!
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He was born for music and will never retire. I’m glad for that.
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Call me picky, but I really do think it’s high time he stopped colouring his hair. Grow old gracefully, Paul!
Best wishes, Pete.
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